Firefox 47 on XP

[Dave-H]

I just today ran Firefox 46 for the first time in a while, and it prompted me to upgrade to version 47.
Firefox updates have never been a problem in the past, but not this time!

It went through the normal upgrade motions, then said that the partial upgrade had failed and that it would need to do a full upgrade.
This I have seen before, and it's always worked.
This time it downloaded and tried to install the full update, and immediately a massive number of continuous DEP violation errors started popping up from EMET, which did not stop until I disabled EMET.
When I tried to then run Firefox, nothing happened, and this was the same after a reboot, even with Firefox removed from EMET monitoring, and DEP disabled in EMET.

I then tried downloading the full offline installer of Firefox 47, which appeared to install fine, but it still wouldn't actually run.
Firefox.exe appears briefly in the task manager, and then vanishes again.

I then tried uninstalling Firefox completely, and its folder completely disappeared.
A new clean install of 47 did exactly the same thing, apparently installed fine but then would not run.

I then replaced the Firefox folder with a backup, and restored a backup of the registry, and I now have 46 back and running fine, with EMET back to its normal settings!

Anyone any idea what's happening here?
There is no evidence that Firefox 47 doesn't still support XP, and I would expect the installer to tell me that anyway if it was the case, and I don't think that EMET is causing the problem. It has always played nicely with Firefox once I got the settings right.
I can't find any reference to any problems like this on the Mozilla forums, and Firefox 47 has been out for quite a while now so if there was a problem surely others would have reported it by now.

I don't use Firefox as my default browser, so it's not that big a deal, but this is very puzzling.
Any suggestions gratefully received.
Cheers, Dave.

 

[dencorso]

I'm using FF 47.0 since it was released, with no issues. Try downloading the stand-alone installer and installing once again, with EMET diasbled...

[Dave-H]

Hi Den!

Good to know that it's not an intrinsic problem, I didn't think it could be or others would have shouted by now.
As I said, I have already tried with the offline installer, with the same result.
It appears to install fine, but when you click OK at the end with the run option ticked, the installer exits but nothing else happens.
I'm not quite sure how to completely disable EMET short of completely uninstalling it, but as I said turning its DEP off and removing Firefox from the list of monitored applications makes no difference to the problem.

 

[dencorso]

I'm baffled, Dave... I really am. However, if  46 works fo you, so should FF 45.2.0 ESR. And the 45.x.x ESR line will go on till Feb 2017, at least.
So you might perhaps want to try the 45.2.0 ESR, so as to know whether it can be an alternative to you. Meanwhile, when the next 47.x appears, you should try it, too. With some luck, whatever quirck is manifesting itself now, may be gone, by then. If not, then we should try to look deeper at it, at that point. Just my 2¢, of course. 

[Dave-H]

OK, I found the culprit!

I checked in Windows Safe Mode, and Firefox 47 ran fine.
To cut a long story short, Firefox is being stopped from running by my online banking protection software, Trusteer Rapport (now part of IBM).
If I disable it Firefox 47 runs fine. Firefox 46 runs fine even with it enabled, but not 47.
I guess it's a problem with its browser integration, which appears as an icon by the address bar, although unlike in some other browsers it doesn't appear as a listed extension.
There's no point in reporting this to Trusteer, as they dropped support for XP some months ago, and they won't want to know!
I will report it on the Mozilla forums though and see what they say.

So, not a Windows XP problem at all.
Please feel free to move this thread elsewhere!
Cheers, Dave.

 

[Dclem]

Dave, I read your post with great interest.  I experienced a similiar problem with both Firefox and Internet Explorer a few weeks back and through trial and error, determined that Kaspersky Anti Virus was the culprit.  I lowered Heuristic Analysis from Medium level to low and that solved the problem.

I have encountered another problem with Firefox versions 46 and higher on Windows XP.  The loading of web pages has become very sluggish and smooth scrolling is no longer occurring.  I have to revert to version 45.0.2 in order to have the pages load quickly and scroll smoothly.   It is very noticeable on web sites such as Facebook for example.   I have experimented with version 47 as well with no success.  I filed a bug report with Mozilla and posted on their support forum, but, no response as of this time.  

I was curious if anyone else is experiencing any issues with Firefox and Windows XP page loading?  I use it as my primary browser.

[Dave-H]

I don't use Firefox as my primary browser, I keep it along with several others to test the websites that I maintain.
As such, I actually only use it quite rarely, although I do like to keep it up to date, but I can't say that I've noticed any problems with it up until now.

 

[sdfox7]

To avoid compatibility issues, my personal use policy has been to use Firefox ESR as my main browser, alongside Firefox Portable current release for the websites that desire a newer browser. On my ThinkPad T40, I have no issues with the current release Firefox ESR 45.2.0 and Firefox Portable 47.0.1.

I think it will be a while before Mozilla drops XP support, particularly the ESR version which is designed for "conservatively slow upgraders" including schools, universities and business. Even when they do, there are alternatives (including spoofing the browser version).

Edited June 29, 2016 by sdfox7

[Dibya]

i donot think firefox has any intent to leave a wide popular os